Introduction - Hydro-Environmental Analysis: Freshwater Environments - page 11

400 350

Groundwater
Surface water
To tal
Population

350

300

300

250

250

200

200

150

150

100

100

50

50

0 0

1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

FIGURE 1.8 Changes in public supply withdrawals in the United States. (From Hutson, S.S., Barber, N.L.,
Kenny, J.F., Linsey, K.S., Lumia, D.S., and Maupin, M.A., USGS Circular 1344, U.S. Geological Survey,
Washington, DC, 2005.)

Past water management has focused more on the quantity of water, rather than the quality, with
the exception of the impact of that quality on human health and use. Only in recent decades has the
quality of the nation's waters for ish and wildlife become of major national concern. The paradigm
for water management has, to some degree, shifted in the United States from “how much water can
we take from the water supplies” to “how much do we need to leave behind” (paraphrased from
Hirsch 2006).
Shifts have also occurred from the management of high and low lows to attempting to manage
the low hydrograph; from management at timescales of days to weeks, to years and decades; and,
from the management of individual waterbodies, to watershed scales or larger, including global
impacts, and including interactions between groundwaters, surface waters, and the atmosphere.
Often though, the knowledge base to accommodate those shifts in water management practices is
limited or does not exist. The result in some cases may be that we are learning just enough from our
past mistakes to go on and make entirely new ones.

REFERENCES
Hirsch, R.M. 2006. USGS science in support of water resources management. Presented at the Mississippi
Water Resources Conference, Jackson, MS.
Hutson, S.S., N.L. Barber, J.F. Kenny, K.S. Linsey, D.S. Lumia, and M.A. Maupin. 2000. Estimated use of
water in the United States in 2000. USGS Circular 1268, U.S. Geological Survey, Washington, DC.
Hutson, S.S., N.L. Barber, J.F. Kenny, K.S. Linsey, D.S. Lumia, and M.A. Maupin. 2004. Estimated use of
water in the United States in 2000. USGS Circular 1268, U.S. Geological Survey, Washington, DC.
Hutson, S.S., N.L. Barber, J.F. Kenny, K.S. Linsey, D.S. Lumia, and M.A. Maupin. 2005. Estimated use of
water in the United States in 2000. USGS Circular 1344, U.S. Geological Survey, Washington, DC.